I live in Wilmington, NC. We are on the coast and were hit with all of Flo's strength and water, I think the final count was 35 inches near my house and all the flooding that comes with it. It took almost two weeks to get our power restored and thank God we personally had not much damage (about $1,000). My first real shower about 15 minutes after it came back on was sooooo nice, taking bird baths out of a rain barrel for 13 days was not fun.
I personally didn't even think about shops for the first few weeks, was busy with cleaning up and still am. I am doing my first shops since the storm this morning. There were/still are very few here and limited internet to do them on. It is hysterical that one business won't open up for at least two more months but I keep seeing posts for an urgent shop there. I have emailed the schedulers several times to let them know this but they keep reposting and adding bonus's!!! I will be really missing the money from shops and my cabinet's are bare from the lack of grocery shops!
My sil has major damage to 5 rooms in her house and mom has to probably replace all her floors. The biggest issue is many didn't have wind and hail insurance and fema is a joke. Our regular homeowner's insurance does nothing for storms, I know my wind/hail is $2700 per year with almost a 5000 deductible so we also don't have it. I met with the fema adjuster yesterday and he basically said mom will need to take out a "small business loan" to get her's fixed. Who is going to loan money to a 91 year old with only ss as an income. My sil will meet tomorrow with hers and I hope they will help her. She lost her fiancé in the storm and has probably about 20,000 in damages if we do most of the work. She not only has had to deal with basically gutting her house and loosing most of her memories of her fiancé (and her first husband who died suddenly of a heart attack at 43) but has to somehow find the money to pay for repairs.
Please take a moment to say a prayer for her if you can, it will be appreciated. We have set up a fund through her church if any would like to make donations. The address is Wilmington First Assembly, Cathy Collins Repair Fund, 4927 Wrightsville Avenue, Wilmington NC, 28403 or donate thru PayPal on their website www.wfachurch.com.
I hope that I didn't break any rules with including this but she could use the help. Otherwise please don't make donations to red cross or Fema, it doesn't get to people. I couldn't even get a little ice from the RC to keep my husband's insulin cool from them when they had coolers full keeping their volunteers water cold! I have donated and volunteered with them many times in the past but never again. I would recommend doing it to an organization called, "God's pit crew" (not sure where they are from but they just showed up in several neighborhoods and started cutting trees and wouldn't take a cent from home owners) or Cajon Army. They both are really helping the victims! Many homes here are still underwater in our area and it will take a long time to recover.